Alain Dudoit spent 35 years in Canada’s federal public service, holding senior roles at the Privy Council Office, Finance, CIDA, and Foreign Affairs, with postings as Ambassador to Spain, Andorra, the Czech and Slovak Republics, and Consul General in Los Angeles. Since retiring in 2008, he has applied his international and policy expertise in academia, as Senior Associate VP for Strategic Partnerships at McGill, and in the private sector as an advisor on global business and innovation networks. He helped create the QG100 and OG100 business leader networks and was a key architect of the Scale AI supercluster. Today, Alain focuses on fostering international collaboration, advancing AI adoption, and building innovation ecosystems that connect public, private, and academic sectors in Canada and abroad.
“How are we going to strengthen our military industrial base in Canada? You need effective collaboration between the federal, provincial, and private sectors.”
Can you briefly introduce yourself and your current role?
During his 35-year career in the federal public service, Alain Dudoit has held several senior positions in the Privy Council Office, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Department of Finance and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He has served Canada abroad as Minister Counsellor (Commercial and Economic Affairs) at the Canadian Embassy in Paris, Ambassador to the Czech and Slovak Republics in residence in Prague, Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Principality of Andorra in Madrid and Consul General in Los Angeles with Jurisdiction over Arizona New Mexico and Nevada (Las Vegas).
Since his retirement from the Canadian public service in 2008, Alain Dudoit has been applying and sharing his vast international experience in innovation partnerships, his many professional achievements and an impressive business network in Canada and abroad. Immediately following his retirement from the Canadian government, he was appointed Senior Associate Vice-President (strategic partnerships in innovation) at McGill University. Since then, Alain Dudoit has been involved in the private sector as an independent entrepreneur and strategic advisor in international business and innovation network development for several companies and organizations in Canada, California, China and Europe.
In 2017, Alain Dudoit completed his mandate as Senior Advisor to the QG100 Network, which he has developed and managed since its creation in 2010. QG100 is a private grouping of Quebec business leaders in support of their global market development strategies. The success of this network led Alain Dudoit to participate in the creation of a similar organization, OG100, in Ontario. Alain Dudoit is one of the main architects of the supply chain and artificial intelligence innovation supercluster, Scale AI.
What are your current areas of expertise, and which emerging trends are you monitoring most closely?
Alain highlighted continuity in his work: ecosystems development between the public, private sectors and academia at home and internationally; advancing public policy transformation; and improving public service performance at all levels of government. He pointed to five major trends (external and domestic) shaping Canada’s future: climate change; the end of the post war liberal world order demographic pressures, weak productivity, challenging digital transformation and AI adoption in the public and private sectors.
Through Global Advantage, Alain has contributed to major initiatives such as projects for the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and the Atlantic Canada AI Strategy, where he served as project lead “In both cases, we successfully concluded the projects to the satisfaction of our client,” he noted, though he added that these outcomes remain confidential and not for public release.”
Alain is currently completing a CIRANO publication on data interoperability and its role in transforming Canada’s public sector within today’s national and international context. His focus, he explained, lies in fostering AI adoption and data-sharing frameworks among multiple stakeholders to meet emerging challenges.
Alain closely monitors opportunities for collaboration with like-minded jurisdictions in Canada and abroad, particularly the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and California, the world’s fourth-largest economy and the cradle of the technology industry. The State, where Alain was posted four years is setting the tone for the safe and effective deployment of AI in the public sector. It is home to 32 of the 50 largest AI companies in the world.
You have spoken about public sector transformation and AI integration, noting that these two are increasingly interconnected. What emerging trends do you see in this space?
Alain noted that the future of public service is one of the key policy issues of our time. Artificial intelligence and big data are transforming economies and societies and redefining competitive advantages, but their full potential is hampered by insufficient access to quality data and models. AI and data management have become a fundamental aspect of public sector governance and operations around the world. The growing influence of data on decision-making continues to deepen, as ever-increasing amounts are collected and analyzed. Over the next three years, more data will be generated than in the rest of human history, largely thanks to advances in artificial intelligence. Ai’s rapid spread in the public sector brings both promise and risk. He warned of challenges in control, ethics, privacy, and cybersecurity.
Both Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt have drawn explicit parallels between AI and nuclear technologies, highlighting how AI, such as nuclear energy, is fundamentally reshaping global power, strategy, and existential risk. Their perspectives emphasize that the era of AI demands strategic foresight, ethical governance, and robust international cooperation, just as the nuclear age did.
Alain stressed that AI also presents major opportunities across nearly every field of human activity. In healthcare, both physical and mental, predictive analytics and the growing availability of data are already driving significant breakthroughs. The environmental sector, too, is benefiting from AI-enabled monitoring and modelling. But alongside AI, he flagged the climate crisis as another existential challenge. He warned that the trend is in the wrong direction, urging vigilance and coordinated action.
A third global pressure point, Alain noted, is the disruption of the international order. The post–World War II system that supported decades of global growth is now under strain, with multiple active conflicts in the Middle East, Europe, and tensions between China and Taiwan, each carrying the potential to escalate into wider war, adding that Canada and the world are “well equipped against threats, but not as well equipped in terms of effective collaboration” to address them.
For Canada, this underscores the need for faster transformation in how the public and private sectors work together, supported by stronger domestic and international partnerships. Alain urged that we need to do it fast, because the crisis is with us. Success will require more than adopting cutting-edge tools, It will depend on how governments at all levels work together. The seven strategic priorities set out by the federal government are bold and critical. Yet their successful implementation is only possible through a coordinated reform agenda centred on public sector data interoperability and AI-enabled service delivery. No single jurisdiction can deliver these outcomes alone.
At the heart of this transformation is the citizen, who is also the taxpayer, consumer, and end user of services delivered by federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments. Canadians are entitled to complementary, efficient, and reliable public services, regardless of jurisdiction and in full respect of FPT responsibilities. Meeting this expectation requires a collaborative, whole-of-government approach built on modern tools and coordinated strategies. Momentum is building at the federal level. The real opportunity now lies in turning that momentum into an FPT-wide effort to create a truly connected, responsive, and citizen-centred public sector. For Global Advantage, the mission lies in helping clients better understand the economic systems they operate in and identifying ways to improve productivity across the public sector, private sector, and academia.
You have long been a strong advocate for both international collaboration and improved coordination among Canada’s internal stakeholders. With NATO recently adopting a new goal of allocating 5% of GDP to defence, a target Canada has agreed to. How do you see Canada’s positioning in this context, particularly with AI and data availability likely to play a growing role? What should Canada be doing differently, and where can it improve?
Alain believes Canada starts from a position of strength in AI and data science literacy, ranking well among OECD countries and possessing both the human talent and technological capacity needed to contribute meaningfully. However, he was quick to highlight a persistent weakness: “We are not very good at integration, not very good at adapting, and not very good at sharing data.” In his view, the public sector must take the lead in driving data-sharing initiatives for the public good, as the private sector, despite its capacity, is unlikely to assume that leadership role. “The public sector in Canada represents about 42% of our GDP; it’s significant,” he noted. “…, and the public sector must move to the next level of transformation.”
For Alain, this transformation is less about technology than it is about mindset and trust building. Federal, provincial, and municipal governments need to develop stronger trust frameworks for data sharing across jurisdictions. Without this, Canada will struggle to meet its commitments under NATO’s guidelines. He pointed out that of the 5% GDP target, 3.5% will focus on the military industrial base, while 1.5%, which is not insignificant, will go toward infrastructure projects that improve national resilience, such as bridges, schools, hospitals, and digital systems.
Alain noted Canada’s recent role in the G7 and the establishment of new AI-related partnerships with the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the G7 as a whole as a positive sign. However, he cautioned that these will not achieve their full potential without a governance transformation that begins with creating interoperability in strategic public sector domains such as health, supply chain management, and defence crisis management. “How are we going to strengthen our military industrial base in Canada? You need effective collaboration between the federal, provincial, and private sectors,” he said.
Alain warned that the unjustified use of economic force by the Trump administration is an immediate and direct threat” to Canada, its economy and its sovereignty. The current US government has fundamentally changed the global economic regime. For nearly 80 years, the United States provided the world with forms of insurance such as the ability to safely navigate the air and seas, international trade rules, and a stable dollar. But that era has come to an end. The US role has shifted from being an insurance provider to foreign governments and global commerce to being a threat to them. This regime change will hurt China the least while damaging the United States’ closest allies, the most among major economies, in particular Canada, according to Adam S. Posen, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
The choice is stark for Canada either we capitulate and dissolve into the USA or we resist not alone but with a large coalition of like-minded partners: Faced with this unprecedented danger, the collective response must be swift and vigorous. To do so, we must strengthen our national cohesion, our domestic resilience, and our internal market. The current intergovernmental system, which is reactive and siloed, must evolve into a proactive, results-oriented partnership. This means moving beyond annual funding negotiations to multi-jurisdictional agreements focused on shared goals and measured outcomes. It also means jointly investing in AI capabilities that enable all governments, federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous, to leverage automation and predictive analytics through date interoperability in strategic sectors of the economy and society.
The time to act is now: public trust is eroding, and Canadians increasingly view FPT relationships as dysfunctional. Digital transformation is stalled, as fragmented data systems are holding back progress on AI, public sector reform and regulatory consistency. Canada’s digital sovereignty is threatened by disruptive policy measures taken by the United States, which require a strong and coordinated Canadian response.
When it comes to interoperability, are there specific geographies or global players Canada should be watching closely?
On the global stage, Alain highlighted the European transatlantic relationship and the Indo-Pacific as critical areas for strategic engagement. He sees potential for deeper ties with Europe, which, like Canada, faces pressing productivity challenges alongside the security threat posed by the war in Ukraine.
Alain underscored the complexity of diversifying military industrial capacity, questioning whether future procurement will favor Canadian, European, or other suppliers. The current federal government review of the $27.7-billion purchase of 88 F-35 stealth fighter jets and the possibility that after delivery of the first tranche of jets. Canada could decide to fill the rest of its order with another type of aircraft. This impending decision is the fist major test of our readiness to reduce our dependence ca on the US. The current review makes it harder to get to a trade agreement, according to the American ambassador to Canada.
Alain also raised concerns about public service capacity: Is the Public Sector ready to perform that role? And how FPT data interoperability and AI adoption can improve that capability? This is where he sees a possible role for Global Advantage Consulting Group. He said that the way that Global Advantage is organized, and given the size, it can facilitate those federal-provincial data connections in key sectors. By mapping critical public policy domains and enabling data sharing, Global Advantage can directly support the transformation Canada needs to meet both domestic and international interoperability challenges.
Do you think the 5% NATO goal is achievable for Canada within the given timeframe?
Alain said the answer will depend on the next federal budget, noting that while Canada may not yet have the capacity to map out the full trajectory toward 2035, the real question is how much will be invested in the next five years. Achieving the 5% target is not solely a federal responsibility, he stressed, provincial governments must also play a role.
He pointed out that the 3.5% portion of the target directed toward the military will require not only strengthening Canada’s capacity to produce weapon systems, but also investing in equipment for Arctic sovereignty, Arctic security, wildfire response, and new military technologies. Drawing on lessons from the Ukraine war, Alain noted the tremendous opportunities in AI-enabled defence systems and autonomous military vehicles. This opens the door for both public and private sector participation in defence delivery.
The remaining 1.5%, he explained, will go toward infrastructure, and this should be interpreted broadly to include digital and telecommunications infrastructure. For Alain, this is where Canada should invest massively in the national supply chain, improving internal trade resilience and, in turn, enhancing international trade with partners in Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and the U.S. He views such supply chain investment as a long-term investment in the future of our economy rather than a mere expenditure, and one that should also draw in private sector participation.
Alain expressed cautious optimism about Canada’s ability to meet this goal within the framework of the Prime Minister’s seven national priorities. He pointed to the convergence of economic experience and strategic foresight at the highest levels of government. The election of the Prime Minister, combined with the appointment of Michael Sabia as Clerk of the Privy Council may have created a rare opportunity for Canada’s modernization efforts required to implement a coherent, productivity-driven data strategy for the public sector This could prove to be one of the most consequential steps in national governance and transformation.
